Annexation would undermine quaint, old town feel Matlacha Island strives to preserve

The City of Cape Coral owns five acres of land along Pine Island Road. It now wants to annex and rezone it. As President of the Matlacha Island Chamber of Commerce, a resident and owner of Lovegrove Gallery & Gardens, I oppose this action by Cape Coral.

While it’s true that Cape Coral has not stated what they intend to do with the land if it is annexed, all Matlacha Island residents, business owners and visitors believe that we alone should control what’s done with the strip that forms the gateway to Matlacha and Pine Island.

It is as simple as this: Ever since Matlacha Island was created from fill dredged from Matlacha Pass in order to create a bridge and roadway connecting Pine Island to the mainland, the people who've lived here have strived to preserve the small, old town feel of our community.

Understand, our earliest pioneers were transplants looking for a place to call our own during the Great Depression. Some lived in their cars. Others lived in tents. The lucky ones pieced together shacks and shanties from pine trees and the mangroves that lined our shores. They lived on the fish and oysters they found in our waters. Both were abundant back then, and we appreciated these and our other natural resources and local assets.

But the folks who settled Matlacha weren't esteemed as pioneers. To the contrary, they were labeled squatters and the police tried to make them leave. They refused. They persisted. They fought for every inch of soil they reclaimed from nature in those difficult years between 1929 and the start of World War II. Every day was a struggle. But eventually, they earned the right to keep and to homestead the land on which they settled.

Outsiders cannot understand or appreciate just how highly we prize our independence or heritage. Every mangrove, every shoal, every inch of our one mile by one mile island is precious to us. And we have long strived to maintain our unique small time, old town character, first as a community of crusty old hardboiled shrimpers and mullet fishermen and now as quirky but tough-minded artists, musicians and authors.  

Given this background, it would be a travesty to now allow developers to circumvent our steadfast efforts to resist the legion of developers who’ve wanted to build condominiums, high rises and resort hotels here and on Pine Island by enabling them to erect densely-populated projects on the stretch of Pine Island Road leading to the fishingest bridge in the world.

 

There’s also a matter of the environment. For decades, Cape Coral has allowed developers to dredge canals that empty into the waters surrounding Matlacha and Pine Island. The water from these canals has changed the salinity of our waters  and stormwater run-off that enters these canals contains staggering concentrations of fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals.

 

 

 Mixed and mingled with the nutrient-laden freshwater releases from Lake Okeechobee, the water from Cape Coral's canals has reduced the number of fish produced during spawning season in our estuaries, ruined our fishing and killed off the scallop and oyster beds that once thrived in our waters.

“We know this is an environmentally sensitive area as it is designated as a manatee protected area and endangered sawfish are trying to survive there as well,” notes Birdi Smock, President of the Matlacha Civic Association. “ These waters are home to 86 threatened and endangered species.”

Given the Cape's woeful environmental record, what would make us or any reasonable person think that Cape Coral will now act to protect our waters, fish and other wildlife as they permit development on the five acres it wishes to annex.

And then there's the matter of precedent. I agree with Roger Wood, who serves as the president of the Greater Pine Island Civic Association, who has stated that “we could see [Cape Coral] moving west on Pine Island Road and annexing more property." If it works once, why not a second or third time as well?
 

For all these reasons and more, I oppose the proposed annexation and would ask the City of Cape Coral to deny the request for annexation. Please join us in opposing annexation of this land by Cape Coral. The Cape coral City Council meets to consider the matter on Monday, December 12 at 4:30 p.m.. Council chambers are located at 1015 Cultural Park Blvd. Please attend and let your voice be heard.